when the sees of the Bishops were become vacant by the operation of the Act of Parliament. This circumstance seems to support the idea, that the charge against Turner was made for the purpose of reflecting odium on the Nonjuring Prelates, that so the government might have a better colour for filling up the vacancies. Tindal, who assumes the guilt of Turner, says that the discovery of the Bishop of Ely's correspondence gave the King a fair opportunity to fill up the vacant sees.[1] As Turner was permitted to live quietly afterward, we may assume that the government did not consider him guilty. Burnet says: "The discovery of the Bishop of Ely's correspondence in the name of the rest, gave the King a great advantage in filling these vacant sees, which he resolved to do on his return from the Congress." Burnet produces no evidence against Turner: and I cannot but conclude, that the charge was not only unfounded, but that it was fabricated for the purpose of rendering the suspended Bishops obnoxious to the people at the period, when the strong step of removing them from their sees was about to be put in execution. The circumstances are peculiar. The plot was discovered in December: the trials occurred in January: Lord Preston and Mr. Ashton were executed during that month: and the First of February was the day fixed by Act of Parliament for the deprivation of the Bishops. A charge, therefore, against Turner, and such a charge as implicated Sancroft and the rest of the Bishops, was the very thing to excite the public mind, and to deprive them of that sympathy, which their sufferings in the cause of the Church in the previous reign, and their present misfortunes, were
- ↑ Tindal, i. 166.
